Tuesday, June 25, 2013

'Telengana Uncertainity Threat' From Within Escalates

By Ramesh Reddy / HyderabadThe Telengana headache is threatening not to go away; neither for Andhra Chief Minister Kiran Reddy nor Congress leaders from the region. It has been an emotive, and often violent issue that is polarising the party in the state. T-leaders, the Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh C Damodara Rajanarasimha and State Panchayat Raj Minister K Jana Reddy are sleepless in Hyderabad.The 'Chalo Assembly' programme, recently undertaken by Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) demanding immediate statehood for the region is the basic reason for their political insomnia. Even though the state Government blocked the Chalo Assembly movement, it only succeeded in reviving the T-sentiment in the region.As elections to local bodies, slated for the third week of July, are just one month away, followed by general elections in 2014, Congress leaders from Telangana are anxious about the party's electoral fortunes if the Centre does not accord statehood to Telangana.Compounding the worries of the T-Congress flock, the Congress high command has started the exercise of untangling the Telangana tangle by announcing a financial package for Telangana instead of statehood.After knowing that their party leadership is in no mood to keep its promise over delivering a separate Telangana state, Rajanarsimha and Jana Reddy have undertaken the twin tasks of persuading their party high command to announce statehood and also of convincing fence-sitters in the party, who are leaning towards the separatist Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) to retain their seats in the ensuing general polls. In order to achieve their aims, the duo are planning to hold a public meeting in support of T-state on July 30 in the state capital.The proposed meeting is aimed at exerting pressure on the AICC leadership to create a Telangana state as well as restoring the confidence of T-Congress rank and file that the party will announce statehood to their region."During the meeting, we will in no uncertain terms tell our party leadership that nothing short of statehood is acceptable. We will pass a resolution in that meeting to this effect and send it our party supremo Sonia Gandhi," said Jana Reddy.Meanwhile, he is also gathering signatures of party MLAs from Telangana to endorse the proposed T-resolution.In order to win back the faith of the Telangana people, the two ministers are also planning to make an announcement from the dais at the proposed meeting that no T-Congress leader will contest the 2014 polls if statehood is not accorded to the region before the Lok Sabha elections. They will also lead a delegation of T-leaders to Delhi soon after the meeting to plead with their party high command to bifurcate the state."We will undertake Delhi Yatra to once again convince our party top brass that unless Telangana state is formed, our party's electoral fortunes in the region will not be revived," said Jana Reddy.Over the same issue, a continuous procession of leaders including Kiran Reddy and APCC boss Satyanarayan Botcha have been frequent flyers to Delhi.